GM Rat Sass's Age of Worms

Game Master Governayle

Tynan watches Allustan closely, trying to size up the older man's motivations, but doesn't speak. Study target

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 10 + 1 = 14 (+1 studied)

I'm not convinced this is such a good idea...

"OH! Of course! My humblest apologies. I'm Ascaria, though most of the miners around here just know me as Canary. This is Tynan, Sol, Rae, and Pillette. Another friend of ours, Mort, is doing some things in town and couldn't make it."

He casually waves the box around as he talks.

"We have a few things to show you actually, two of which I've identified as magical, but my skills are, sadly, weak in this area and I do not know what they do exactly. That's why were here of course, to ask you!"

"We picked up a pair of black red-tipped horns, a diadem - that is one of the magical items, this box" wave "and the contents of this box, a long handled thing with an adamantine loop."

He cracks open the box and shows him, briefly, the contents.

"We're hoping you can identify the magics, read this lettering here" he gestures toward the box top, "and, well, sort of let us know what we've got. I think some of it might be dangerous, and don't want to, you know, do something bad."

"So how does that sound? Can we come in and chat?"

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26

Sol smiles nicely when introduced. She waits to hear if he can help them.

Allustan listens patiently as Ascaria introduces the gaggle on his stoop. As the gnome begins an accounting of all that is needed, the old man nods his head, still patiently. When Ascaria asks to be let in, Allustan blanches.

"All of you? Certainly, you don't require everyone's presence for a consultation... you're all... so sweaty..." Without so much as an if-you-will, Allustan tucks his wand down his sleeve, and begins to clean each and every one of you on the doorstep.

It takes some time. Allustan requires everyone to turn in place, so he can assure himself that the job is done fully.

"Alright then. Come in. But do not touch anything. And stay together. I am uncomfortable with the idea of strangers walking my hallways unsupervised." He leads the way, down a hallway, then into a sitting room, where you find dozens of piles of papers and books, precarious in their stackings. There is no room to sit, but Allustan does make an effort to clear a table partially for observation. The more he has to move, the less patience he seems to have.

"I think that's enough room, don't you? If you'd like to show me now, Ascaria?" It barely sounds like a question.

Roll20 map has been updated.

"Thanks! I haven't been this clean in a while!"

Ascaria places each of the items above mentioned onto the table. He looks to Allustan for guidance.

Sol smiles and twirls, trying to help the man get every speck of dirt off her.

"Rae, think! Don't you wish Mom could do this? Instead of baths!? This is really nice!"

When the man has her clean, she finds a chair and sits patiently, a pleasant smile upon her face.

Round, Init

As Ascaria lays out the items, Allustan's attention seems to pinpoint focus on the table, moving about the table, ignorant of the others in the room. He first waves his hand above the objects, then picks up each item individually.

"Well, well, well." Allustan straightens up, his back cracking audibly, before his head jerks, as he regains you in his peripheral vision.

"You have not disappointed here." Allustan looks at those present, then turns to pick up the diadem. "Let's start here, shall we? This is enhancement magic. When worn, more wise you become." Headband of Wisdom +2

He sets down the diadem, and picks up the box. "The glyphs here... they are... quite old. Quite old. I might be able to study it longer, but several of the glyphs reference the Queen of Chaos, from the Time Before. The gods as we know them now? The Queen came Before. How ever did you...?" He studies each of you, waiting for answers. His hand comes to rest on the handle and loop, tapping it lightly.

Sol smiles and twirls, trying to help the man get every speck of dirt off her.

"Rae, think! Don't you wish Mom could do this? Instead of baths!? This is really nice!"

"Mom used a wand, silly. Don't you remember? *harrumph* I like baths better."

He sets down the diadem, and picks up the box. "The glyphs here... they are... quite old. Quite old. I might be able to study it longer, but several of the glyphs reference the Queen of Chaos, from the Time Before. The gods as we know them now? The Queen came Before. How ever did you...?" He studies each of you, waiting for answers. His hand comes to rest on the handle and loop, tapping it lightly.

Ascaria sighs, "Well it was like I said, they were buried in an underground cavern, and well protected too. Lots of traps and the like. Very tough."

"He leans over the box, so you can tell us what this says? And what of the contents, what is that thing?"

"How ever did you...?"

Sol is delighted to explain again.

"I told you. We walked on air. On airy airy air! Tell him, Rae! And there were iron balls and a ghost, too! And lots of lanterns! Pretty ones!" Sol explains excitedly.

"Mom used a wand, silly. Don't you remember?"

Sol smiles at her sister, remembering differently.

"Oh no, Sol. The wand was for Mum after Daddies left."

Allustan's eyes roam over the table, passing from the diadem, returning to the adamantine loop and its handle. "The box and its glyphs are intriguing. If you leave it with me, I will dedicate part of my days researching the ancient language, and should have a translation in several days. As for the loop, what you have here is called a Talisman of the Sphere. Very unique device. It's said to have some control over Spheres of Annihilation. Very powerful things, those Spheres. Holes, more likely, in the continuity of the Multiverse. Holes that destroy anything they touch utterly. Please tell me you didn't happen upon a Sphere, where you found this Talisman. Did you?" Allustan smacks his now-dry lips, before continuing.

"What do you intend to do with it?"

"Holes that destroy anything they touch utterly. Please tell me you didn't happen upon a Sphere, where you found this Talisman. Did you?"

Worried by the man's tone, Tynan tries to ferret out his motivations.

Sense Motive: Allustan: 1d20 + 10 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 10 + 1 = 13 (+1 studied)

Tynan gives Ascaria a quick look, then looks back at the Talisman, an uneasy feeling settling over him.

Indeed... what ARE we going to do with it? I can see only trouble...

”I dunno. I suppose, in case we run into one of those sphere things, one of us should learn to use this thing. Can you teach one of us to use it?”

”Do you buy, er, and sell magics? I dunno that any of us will use the diadem, but I could be wrong. Maybe we can trade, now or in the future?” he looks around the cramped room, ”Uh, we won’t all need to come every time of course.”

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28

He smiles a sweet smile.

Sol chimes in.

"Oh, we found lots of spheres...1000s of them. Hard little iron spheres, too," Sol rubs her back where she was tagged by a sphere. "So...this loop can control those spheres, then? Is it magnetic or something?"

Mortimer patiently and politely knocks on Allustan's front door again.

"Hello?", he calls out. "Anybody here? Anyone home?"

He backs up and tries to see if he can see any movement in the house through the windows.

Perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (16) + 7 = 23

"I dunno. I suppose, in case we run into one of those sphere things, one of us should learn to use this thing. Can you teach one of us to use it?”

”Do you buy, er, and sell magics? I dunno that any of us will use the diadem, but I could be wrong. Maybe we can trade, now or in the future?” he looks around the cramped room, ”Uh, we won’t all need to come every time of course.”

Allustan nods as the gnome responds. "I'm pretty sure you can learn to wield, just bringing your arcane focus to bear upon it. It doesn't seem to be fully energized at the moment, from what I can tell. That might make it easier for you to possess, since it doesn't radiate as brightly."

"As for the diadem, why don't you leave it with me as well? It has an interesting glyph on the front, here, see? It says 'Zosiel'. Not sure who or what that is, but the marking is of very similar construct to the ancient languages. I should be able to deduce more of its meaning."

The old man leaves the items on the table as he addresses you all. "You still haven't answered my question." He seems to take pains not to look at Solrisa. "Where exactly was this cavern? Local? Most of the cairns in the surrounding hills have most surely been investigated to every end. Everyone likes to beat a dead horse. Do you all live in Diamond Lake, or are you just passing through?" He seems to grow suspicious of a sudden.

A knock at the door only serves to rattle his nerves further.

"Of all the days to... You. Wait here. Do not touch anything." In several moments, Allustan returns to the room, Mortimer ducking slightly to enter the cozy, sitting room.

"Says he's with you all." Allustan crosses the room, positioning himself behind the table once more. "Yes, I'd be interested in anything further you turn up. I personally have no need for the diadem, but I might be able to facilitate a purchase if you mean to sell it off locally. You'd fare better in Egorian, of course."

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't mean those spheres, Sol. " Rae suggests.

"Eh, we're an eclectic bunch. From all over, but We've been here awhile. But I'm not much of a mapper. I don't know if I could find my way back."

"[...] I don't know if I could find my way back."

Find her way back where?

Mortimer decorously steps forward and bows to Allustan.

"One more thing Allustan, Sir -- if I may? I was wondering if you might be able to tell me how old this thing is, maybe where it came from or who might have made it?"

He holds forth for Allustan's inspection one of the iron spheres from Ball Hall.

Sol waits with the group until Mort and Allustan return.

"See Allustan? We have spheres! Lots of them!" Sol waits, twirling one lock of her blonde braid while she does for Allustan's thoughts.

Allustan nods as the gnome responds. "I'm pretty sure you can learn to wield, just bringing your arcane focus to bear upon it. It doesn't seem to be fully energized at the moment, from what I can tell. That might make it easier for you to possess, since it doesn't radiate as brightly."

"As for the diadem, why don't you leave it with me as well? It has an interesting glyph on the front, here, see? It says 'Zosiel'. Not sure who or what that is, but the marking is of very similar construct to the ancient languages. I should be able to deduce more of its meaning."

”Well, I suppose if it’s only a couple days that should be fine. However, I, er, don’t have any arcane focus to speak of.” he looks to his companions with a blank look, ”I don’t think any of us has that particular spark. Is it only useful in the hands of a wizard-type?”

The old man leaves the items on the table as he addresses you all. "You still haven't answered my question." He seems to take pains not to look at Solrisa. "Where exactly was this cavern? Local? Most of the cairns in the surrounding hills have most surely been investigated to every end. Everyone likes to beat a dead horse. Do you all live in Diamond Lake, or are you just passing through?" He seems to grow suspicious of a sudden.

”Some of us live here, but we’re all trying to find a home here I think in one way or another.” Ascaria grins. ”The cavern was over yonder, on the other side of town, in the wilderness. Not easy to find unless you know where it is. We sort of stumbled on it ourselves really.”

”Do you want to come and check it out? We could lead you there if you liked!”

""Eh, we're an eclectic bunch. From all over, but we've been here awhile. But I'm not much of a mapper. I don't know if I could find my way back."

Allustan nods with a light, unconscious frown.

"One more thing Allustan, Sir -- if I may? I was wondering if you might be able to tell me how old this thing is, maybe where it came from or who might have made it?"

The old man turns back to the giant, his frown lightening as the large man bows to him. Taking the iron sphere in hand, he looks to Solrisa for a moment. "Yes, this is not the kind of sphere I was describing earlier." He turns back to Mortimer.

"Other than being quite heavy, I'm not able to discern how old it is. It's not tarnished, unless you've polished it already, so it's likely not mixed metal. Nor does it exhibit rusting, so it's been largely free of moisture in the air, yeah, but for how long? It doesn't detect as magicked, so I am at a loss without context."

"I don’t think any of us has that particular spark. Is it only useful in the hands of a wizard-type?”

"Yes, from what I've gleaned about Talismans, you'd fare much better if you understood how to work arcane magics. I suppose you could learn how to convince a magic item to activate, just as easily as learning how to tap arcane energies. I don't fancy myself much of a teacher, I'm afraid."

"”Do you want to come and check it out? We could lead you there if you liked!”

Allustan blanches a second time. "That is out of the question. What, you would drag me into a dangerous cavern?! I only asked where it was, not be led to almost certain death!!"

Diplomacy roll would be nice here...

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19

"Oh I see. No I totally understand that, it is hazardous out there." He thinks a moment trying to think of how he could give the wizard more information without bringing him bodily.

Oh yeah!

Ascaria takes out his drawings and scribbles. "I did some drawing while we were there, you know, to pass the time. Maybe these are of some use?"

He takes out his sheaf and dumps them out on the floor. He then picks up the ones that don't help and shoves them back in his sling bag. In the end, he has just a small handful, of which three are particularly useful. The number in parentheses is the drawing check when I made them.

- Drawing of a suit of leather with eight-pointed star emblazoned on the left breast (17)
- Drawing of statue with symbol, and warrior killed by it (28)
- Technical drawing of the bas-relief glyphs (14)

He lingers over the third before handing it over. "I'm better at free hand, this technical stuff isn't as good I'm afraid."

"Other than being quite heavy, [...] so I am at a loss without context."

Mortimer takes back the iron ball, bowing again. "Thank you, Sir. We found them along with these other things in a cavern about 10 minutes East from the old Land's Farm. We had a very difficult time getting to them -- they were -- hard to get to and hidden away." He steps back away from the table, trying to find a discrete place to stand in the room where there is little to no possibility for him to touch or knock into anything by accident.

He hefts the iron ball into the air a few times, admiring its weight. I guess it would be ok for Aesur to melt the thing down -- unless I have some other need of it before then...

Allustan seems to be relieved when Mortimer takes the sphere back. The old man rubs his wrist a little from the exertion of holding it.

"I did some drawing while we were there, you know, to pass the time. Maybe these are of some use?"

Allustan looks most flustered as the gnome rifles through his sketchings, but that melts away as the drawings of glyphs and strange chambers are presented. He moves more paperwork to make room, old for new.

"My, my. This is quite fortunate. Something new. And I was beginning to wonder what I was still doing in Diamond Lake..." His voice trails off, as he moves his glasses for better focus, and studies the charcoal and pencil work.

"Well, alright. May I keep these for a while? Perhaps for the couple of days you'll leave the diadem?" Allustan looks expectantly at Ascaria, turning to look at Mortimer briefly. "They may shed light on your iron spheres..."

Ascaria hands over the sketches without another though, "Sure, no problem. You can keep 'em if you like."

Ascaria starts for the door, "Er, the sketched, not the diadem. We might want to keep that. I dunno yet." he grins. He walks through the hall careful not to knock anything over and lets himself out the front door.

He turns to the others, "So now what? I say we check out the air walk down, but maybe tomorrow. No sense in rushing this thing now is there? Especially as it'll be a few days before Allustan gets back to us."

He starts walking back. "Shall we meet for lunch?"

"They may shed light on your iron spheres..."

Mortimer humbly thanks Allustan once again, and hurries to catch up with the others.

As he does so he rasps in a whisper, "Beware, I think Kullen's gang is trying to taunt me with some of Filge's -- uh -- artifacts. I'm pretty sure we've been watched since we hit town. Something doesn't feel right...".

"Shall we meet for lunch?"

At this suggestion, Mort relaxes quite a bit and starts idly playing with the perfect palm fitting rock as they walk toward the Square.

"Sounds fantastic -- the 'Gar?", he suggests.

Sol looks at Sol, her face hopeful.

"Rae, listen! The Gar! Food!" Sol says excitedly. "Can we?"

Sol indicates that they will be there, already assuming Rae's acceptance.

"Lunch! It's about time. I'm starving!" Rae answers the other hungry people as they leave.

More quietly, she responds to Mort's whisper. "what sort of...taunting?"

"what sort of...taunting?"

Mort quietly responds.
"Rastophan grins obnoxiously at me while wearing the eyeglasses from Filge's 'Sentry' whenever I walk by him. To me Rastophan -- like the 'Sentry' -- manifests as nothing more than some kind of tacky ornament in front of a seedy tavern -- but they may be making some inferences about our presence at the Observatory."

Mortimer pauses to breathe.

"The guards outside Dourstone could have had us coming in, but for some reason or game, they let us pass. Or so I think I saw.", he trails off, lost in thought. "Not sure what we should do if we can even leave the City Proper at this point."

He looks directly at Rae, his worried expression morphing into one of sincerity.

"I got carried away at the Observatory -- and for that I apologize. Just remember that if anything happens -- I'll take the heat."

Sol listens to Mort's tale of the taunting, feeling immediately protective.

"They aren't threatening you, are they Mort? Because that ain't right. If you want, I could go talk to them for you," Sol offers fiercely and sincerely.

Tynan joins the rest at the Gar, keeping an eye out for Rastophan or any of the others while passing through town.

These guys are going to need to be dealt with... very soon.

Actually, it is, I think, already past lunch today. The plan was to split up the rest of the day, and meet at the Gar at a reasonable hour tomorrow so we can sleep in a bit. And then we'd head back to the caves and descend. Sorry that was unclear. Ascaria needs to rejuvenate.

Ascaria looks at Mort, "No. No! No you're not taking the heat for us killing a bad-man. If there's heat, we all share it. WE killed that guy as a group. Fair's fair."

He thinks a moment, "So if they've been following us around, maybe they know the location of the cave. Maybe we should leave some of the traps there intact when we're not there. You know, douse a few lanterns, that sort of thing. Make it tough for 'em if they investigate without us."

He grins at the idea of those simpletons trying to figure out the elaborate traps, the wind tunnel, etc. He laughs aloud at the image.

"Serves 'em right."

After splitting off from the group, Ascaria wanders over to the mine shafts and sees if anyone needs his services. He meanders around the mining projects, providing light here, a minor bit of healing there (skill no spells), etc. He feels very much in his element with the workers, and though he's had much fun with his new friends, he misses the stability and simplicity of the miners.

He turns in late and sleeps deeply, rising well after the sun the following day. He spends his morning lounging around with Tidwoad, if he's not too busy. He tries to just chat him up about Tidwoad's last few days and is somewhat taciturn about his own. As lunch approaches, he makes his way to the Gar, hungry and ready for another delve into the caves...

"They aren't threatening you, are they Mort? Because that ain't right. If you want, I could go talk to them for you,"

Mortimer turns to Solrisa Iome Arabasti.

' have a hard time taking that seriously. Some things are just too easy. Smenk is another story altogther though...

""No. No! No you're not taking the heat for us killing a bad-man. If there's heat, we all share it. WE killed that guy as a group. Fair's fair."

...

But if most of us could just bust one of us out -- that might have been ... something like efficient. Hopefully, we're not being eavesdropped upon...
...
"Thanks, Ascaria.", he says -- at long last -- with great relief.

I wonder what Tynan, Rae and Pillette think about any of this...

"I'll be at the Smithy 'til dusk. Meet you at the 'Gar for brunch in the morrow."
Really need to visit the Emporium or something in the Eve.

Feel free to RP through the end of Fireday night. Looks like Ascaria and Mortimer already have. I'll update shortly...

Rae rolls her eyes at Sol's assertions, though they're really not far off what she herself would say, just louder and more... exuberant.

"Yeah, Mort. You won't go down alone for what's what. Though the fact that they're watching and not doing says something." As the others settle in, Rae does as well, accompanying Sol to keep her out of trouble.

Proceeding with Fireday Night...